Boston Bruins Game 2 Preview: The Most Important Game Ever

I've mentioned it before, game 2 is often where the series is won or lost. A win today would mean a real advantage in the series, effectively turning it into a 5 game series with a Caps home advantage.

But what do we need to win? First of all, the offense actually needs to be, you know, an offense. Seventeen shots is not good enough in the playoffs, especially against a strong goalie like Tim Thomas. That being said, Braden Holtby was on fire in Game 1, and if he can continue with this our offense can get away with being mediocre at best - it's one thing to build a team from the goalie out (Holtby had a .967 save percentage),  but we need some offense to go with it. Not mentioning any names... Ovi.

                                                     We've got to see this more often!

Something for the Caps to build on from game 1 was physicality. Despite being out hit 40-29, the Caps were able to keep this guy at bay (for the most part)

  The Caps didn't let the Bruins bully them around, and having been at TD Garden myself (I saw an incredible Bruins-Habs game there back in November) it's easier said than done. They play tough, and the crowd is brutal to the road team.

So to win.....
                      - Holtby must keep up his performance from game 1
                      - Ovi needs to keep playing physical and crash the net
                      - The Caps need to take shots from the close range - this is Thomas' weak spot.
                      - The home crowd must be silenced with an early goal
                      - Chances must be taken - there were too many near misses in game 1.

NHL's New Playoff Promo feat.Ovi

I do like this new promo, it's memorable, and it shows how much the playoffs mean to all the players, and how much they put on the line for the cup - you hardly ever hear of a hockey player calling it in, especially in the playoffs. However, it's not as good as the history will be made campaign from the last couple of years:

Plus, it was easily parodied:

Hockey in the UK - An Explanation

So I'm from and live in the UK, (apart from a couple of years in Germany and Washington DC.) My name is Cam, I'm 16 and live just north of London. There's more about me in the first post on this blog, anyway.

So, hockey in the UK. We won the won the Olympic Gold in 1936, and since then have been spectacularly awful. We're currently ranked 21st in the world and play in the Division 1 of the World Championship, and have had two players drafted to the NHL - Tony Hand (Edmonton 252nd, 1986) and Colin Shields (Philadelphia 195th 2000). As you can see, it's not a popular game here. In my town of 20,000 people, there are just two hockey players. My team plays over 30 miles away. The league I'm in (Under 19 South Divison 1) is actually the highest someone can get at junior hockey. But that's not much considering there's only two leagues in the south. We have a total of 37 Under 19 teams in the country. Not great.

Here's half of my team... I'm second to the right on the front if you're wondering!

Professionally, our top league is the ELITE League. The standard is slightly worse than the ECHL and has a total salary cap of around £8,000 a week. The best player in this league ever was Theo Fluery, after he left the NHL.The highest attendance we get is around 10,000 people. However, the majority of players in this league are actually foreign.

                                      The 2012 Champions - Nottingham Panthers

Below this, we have three leagues of lower standard than this, where foreign players are limited to maintain the British game. Of these leagues, only players in the EPL are paid.  

There's talk of the KHL expanding into Western Europe, and I hope we could get at least one team here. I find when people are exposed to the sport they love it, but it just hardly gets any media coverage here. British hockey is on satellite and NHL is pay per view.

The key to making the sport popular is simply exposing it more to the general public. If we put it on TV more, and taught kids it as part of PE (this is starting in some parts of the country) it would be far more watched and played. The government needs to subsidise more rinks - the Olympics is coming to London this summer, so lots are being invested in British sport, so why not hockey? We need more than the current 30 or so rinks in the entire country if we want to make it popular. Bringing the KHL to the UK would make it be a great way of promoting the sport, and maybe someday we'll have a player in the big show.

We may not have the level of support other countries have, but the British hockey fan base is one of the most dedicated in all of sport. If you're ever here, catch a game for a great atmosphere!

The Hiatus Is Over!

I'm back everyone. My season's over, our team didn't make the playoffs this year, but at least the Caps have.
So, the Caps.... Having got the 7th seed in the East, they picked up a difficult draw against defending champions Boston. In my humble opinion, we should have tanked it and got 8th seed - we've got the Rangers'  number and have beaten them in the playoffs multiple times in the last few years.
So with Vokoun and Neuvirth both injured, we're relying on this guy for now....

Braden Holtby. The guy's been solid down in Hershey for most of the season and has several NHL starts to his name, but not a second of playoff experience until last night

To be honest, he did spectacularly well, stopping 29 of 30 shots, finally conceding to Chris Kelly quickly in overtime. The reason why the Caps lost was their pathetic offence in the first two periods, although this picked up in the 3rd, this needs to be addressed urgently.

Game 2 is so important. In my view, if the Caps lose, then the series is done. They'd have to win four games our of five, which is not impossible, but very unlikely nonetheless. if they win, then they have the advantage. The series would be tied with the Caps having the majority of the home games - and the Caps have been far better at home than on the road this season.

 By the way, if you're new to this blog, I'm a 16 year old British Caps fan. I've been doing blogs for a while, but I took a break a few months ago to focus on my schoolwork, but I'm back for good now.

Let's go Caps!

I'm back home!

Hey guys, sorry for not posting, but it would have been difficult to take my laptop with me. But I had an awesome time in your great continent. I saw 2 NHL games, firstly I saw Montreal-Florida, and then Montreal-Boston. It was unbelievable, I've never seen such an amazing standard of hockey - I hope I can see the Caps some day.
So on to the Caps. I'm writing this at 11:30 PM and watching the Caps-Islanders game. Caps are up 1-0 right now.  If the Caps hold on to this lead, they will go 10-2-0 this season. That's twenty points already - if they continue this record, they will finish with sixty-eight wins. Sixty-eight. That's 136 points. Something tells me that the Caps might just make the playoffs this season.
But the fact is, the Caps, are almost 25% of the way to a play-off spot now anyway, and more like 20% to winning the conference. Highlights include the 7-1 win against Detroit and the thrilling 5-4 OT win over Anaheim.  the two games the Caps lost came against Vancouver and Edmonton were winnable - but you can't have everything.
But what of the Great 8? Well, Ovi is tied for first on the Caps and 22nd in the NHL with 5 goals. He also has 7 assists, at 31st in the NHL, and his 12 points are good for 25th in the NHL. These numbers are reasonable, but not Oviesque. He needs to get some goals in to justify his contract and reputation as possibly the best player in the world.

Opening Night!

I've been waiting for this day for quite a while now. After barely getting to see any caps playoff games back in spring due to exams (remember I live 5 hours ahead!), I can watch a caps game again. I'll be staying up until 2:30 AM to watch the Capitals destroy the Canes. I know caps fans all feel really optimistic at the start of every season, but I just have a feeling that 2011/2012 will be the Caps' year. We have strengthened our roster considerably, adding a top 5 goaltender in Voukon, and clutch players Joel Ward and Troy Brouwer. But then again, we will have to see what happens in the next couple of weeks to get a more realistic prediction. 

Right now, I see the Caps as a very realistic Cup contender, with the Canucks, Bruins, Sharks and Penguins being their main rivals.

In an unrelated note, in two weeks time, I will be flying out to North America for ten days. I'll be in NYC, Boston and Montreal, and I will see my first ever NHL game (Boston vs Montreal). I can't wait, and I will keep updates on the trip.

Caps win last preseason games, Go 3-3-1.

That's what I'm talking about! The Caps went into their last two games with a realistic regular season lineup, and they did well!

Firstly, the shootout win in Buffalo was promising. It was really good to see Troy Brouwer combine well with Backstrom and Ovi to let Backstrom score - this is now a possible line for BB. Also, a goal from Mike Green, proving he's still the same player since his injuries earlier this year, and another goal from Matt Hendricks, showing why he has earned his 1-way contract. A shootout goal in the 6th round from Backstrom was enough to seal the win. A good game from the Caps.


In their final preseason game, the Caps took on Chicago, and came out with a convincing 4-1 win.  The game started off badly, with Hossa scoring for Chicago within the first couple of minutes, but the Caps rallied, scoring three unanswered goals from Perreault, Laich and Green. Jay Beagle iced the cake with a minute to go with an empty net goal. Neuvirth was in net, saving 28 shots, and of course only letting one by, with a save percentage of .966, so arguably he was the star here.

In an unrelated note, I would like to thank the guys from Russian Machine Never Breaks (RMNB) for sending out a tweet about my blog last night!